2008-2009

WORLD CAMELOT FEDERATION

CAMELOT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

GAME 1

 

 

WCF Camelot World Championship Game 1

February 7, 2009

White: Dan Troyka    Black: Michael Nolan

(Annotations by Michael Nolan)

 

 

            1.D6-F8

 

          1....H11-F9

 

           2.C6-E8-G8
 
           2....J11-H11 

 

 

            3.H6-H8

 

         3....E11-G9

 

 

            4.J6-H6

 

         4....C11-E11

 

 

            5.I6-I8

 

          5....D11-D9

 

 

            6.I8-J9

 

      6....D10-D8xD6?

A critical error. 6....I10xK8!, 7.G8-E8xC10! (not 7.H6-J8xL8? D10-D8xD6, 8.E6xC6 D9-D8, 9.E7xC9 G9xE7xG5, 10.G6xG4 F11-D9, 11.G8-G6-E8xC10 H11-F11-D9xB9xD11 with the White forces scattered and Black one piece ahead) E11-C9xC11, 8.I7-G5 G9xI7, 9.H7xJ7xL9 would have maintained equality.

  

            7.E6xC6

 

 

          7....I10xK8

 

            8.E7-G5

 

          

          8....G9xE7

 

        9.F6xD8xD10xF12

 

 

         9....F11xF13

 

         10.H6-J8xL8?

White obtains a significant advantage of two Knights for one Man, but 10.G7-I9! H10xJ8, 11.I7-G9xE11xE9xG9 H11-H10, 12.G9-I7xK9xK7 would have given White an overwhelming two Knight and two Man advantage.

        

         10....G11-G9?

Black returns the favor. 10....E10-E9!, 11.G8xE10xE8 H11-F9xD7xB5 would have narrowed Black's deficit to one Knight. Now White would have to be very careful; 12.I7-G9xE11?? G10-F10!, 13.E11xG9 H10xF8xF6xH6xF4 would give Black the win.

       

           11.G6-I8?

11.F7-H9! G10xI8xI6, 12.G8xG10xI12xI10xG10xE8 I6xG8xI8 wins one Man and would have given White a two Knight advantage.

         

        11....I11-G11

       

          12.H7-H9??

This is a moment of Camelot blindness. The H9 destination square is correct, but the Man on F7, not H7, must go there, i.e., 12.F7-H9 G9xI9, 13.I8xI10xG12xE14 H10-G9, 14.H7-H9 G10xI8xI6, 15.G8xG10xG12 winning two Men and giving White a two Knight and one Man advantage.

         

        12....F9xH7xJ7

      

       13.H9xF9xF11xD9??

This throws away the win. 13.H9xF11xF9xH9 H10-I10, 14.H9xJ11 J7xH9xH7, 15.G7xI7 G11-I11, 16.J11-K12 H11-J11xL13 regains two Men for the two Knights lost, and leaves White with a one Man advantage.

     

     13....H11-H9xH7xJ9

Now the game is even; in fact, Black will soon gain an advantage since there is no escape for the White Knight on L8 who will be forced to exchange itself for a Man. For instance, 14.L8-L9 G11-I9-K9 followed by 15....J9-J8, 16.L9xJ9 J8xJ10, or 14.L8-L7 G10-I10-K8 followed by 15....J9-J8, 16.L7xJ9 J8xJ10.

    

           14.D9-E8

 

 

          14....J7-J8

 

           15.E8-G6

 

 

       15....G11-I9-K9

 

           16.L8xJ10

 

 

         16....J9xJ11

 

           17.G5-F6

 

 

         17....F13-G12

 

           18.C6-D6

 

 

          18....J8-I9

 

           19.D6-E7

          

         19....J11-I10

Both players have followed the correct endgame strategy of regrouping their forces.

       

           20.F6-F8?

This move exposes White to loss of material. 20.F7-H5 would have avoided that exposure.

          

         20....G10-F9?

When ahead, in this case by "the exchange" (Knight for Man), trading pieces is almost always strategically wrong. Even worse, Black makes a tactical error missing 20.H10-J10-H8! F7-E8, 21.H8xF6xD8 E8xC8 which would have won a piece.

        

          21.F8xF10

 

 

      21....I10-G10xE10

 

           22.G6-E8

          

       22....G12-F11?

Again, Black incorrectly allows pieces to be traded. 22....I9-G11! avoids a trade.

       

           23.G7-H8!

 

 

         23....I9xG7

 

           24.F7xH7

 

 

        24....F11-F10

 

            25.H7-G7

 

 

         25...H10-G9

 

           26.G7-F7

          

         26....F10-E9?

Black mistakenly allows a trade for the last time; any slim chance for a Black victory is now gone.

        

           27.E7-G7

 

          

          27....E9xE7

 

           28.F7xD7

 

Draw! This position is a dead draw, and the draw was finally agreed upon 25 moves later after numerous fruitless attempts by Black to crack White's stonewall defense. This was the first recorded draw in Camelot World Championship play!

          

 

 

Go here for the analysis and score of Game 2 of the World Championship Match.

 

Go here for the analysis and score of Game 3 of the World Championship Match.

 

Go here for the analysis and score of Game 4 of the World Championship Match.

 

Go here for the analysis and score of Game 5 of the World Championship Match.

 

Go here for the analysis and score of Game 6 of the World Championship Match.

 

Go here for Michael Nolan's retrospective look at the 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 WCF Camelot World Championship Tournaments.

 

Go here to return to the 2008-2009 WCF Camelot World Championship Tournament webpage.